Former Pussy Riot members arrested in Sochi

Former Pussy Riot band members Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova were detained Tuesday in Sochi, Russia.

Tolokonnikova, 24, told the Wall Street Journal she and Alyokhina, 25, were grabbed by police while walking through town, and held in relation to an alleged theft at their hotel.

"We, Maria Alyokhina and the anonymous members of Pussy Riot, came to Sochi to organize a protest and express our political views, but at the time of our detention (by the local police) we were just taking a stroll minding our own business when we got picked up by the police and shoved into a police van," Tolokonnikova said. "We've been detained like anybody who's made an attempt to criticize authorities during the Olympics. Authorities treat local guests and athletes nicely but not those who are attempting to organize a protest."

Activists of the protest group Pussy Riot, believed to be Nadezhda Tolokonnikova (L) and Maria Alyokhina (R), passing media after being released from a police station in the Adler district of Sochi, Russia, on Jan. 18. (EPA/ANATOLY MALTSEV)

The pair say they were in Sochi, where the 2014 Winter Olympic Games are being held, planning a protest of Russian President Vladimir Putin called "Putin Will Teach You To Love The Motherland."

Tolokonnikova told the Wall Street Journal they were detained several times since they arrived in Sochi on Sunday.

The former members of the Russian punk rock group were recently released from prison after serving nearly two years after being arrested in 2012 for hooliganism.

That's what they should named their next band -- "Hooliganism."

They were released three months early under a Kremlin-backed amnesty, according to Us Weekly.